Larry Meuse and his grandson.LUZERNE, Ky. (6/23/14) — Tree-houses. While we loved them as children, a local man wants adults to fall in love with them all over again.

Larry Meuse, a retired jack of all trades, has found a new passion in tree-houses.

"In this day and age, downsizing is a term you hear often,” said Meuse. “You hear about it a lot when you're talking about housing. You can build a really nice tree house for about $20,000."

When Meuse talks about a nice tree house, he means true living quarters including water, sewer and electricity. According to Meuse, a tree-house can last more than 20 years.

Meuse is a fan of Pete Nelson, who is also known as the "Tree Master." Nelson has a television program and is responsible for crews building tree houses in the western part of the United States.

When asked how people, who are older or concerned about ladders could access a tree house, he said each house is built to fit the individual.

"They can be built to accommodate those types of problems,” he said. “If you have enough room, you can build a long ramp, you can enclose the climb, put in stairs, just focus on the problem, and you can solve it. "

When asked how a tree-house can withstand storms, Meuse said, “it's all in how you build it.”

Upon inspection, Meuse seems to have built a very sturdy tree house. The base of the tree includes two boozer beams that are 30 feet long, 16 inches tall and 5.5 inches wide. The width of the tree house includes two, 25-foot beams that look like oversized railroad ties providing extra support.

What is also impressive are the tree anchors. The anchors are two foot in length and allow the tree to move in all directions. The static anchors provide stability but still move in extreme cases while the dynamic anchors allow up down and side to side movement without stressing the actual structure.

“A tree house affords a nice view in a shaded area,” said Meuse. “Using the base structure, you can add a deck in any direction."

Meuse plans to add two decks to his tree house along with walls and a roof. In fact, Meuse plans to make his tree house split level and possibly run it as a bed and breakfast or just use it as a personal retreat.

Meuse said his ultimate goal is to simply, "find other like-minded people that may want to build tree houses for other people in addition to finding people who may want a tree house built."

Meuse believes there is a untapped market for a venture such as this given the successes that can be found out west.

Meuse lives at 18 Raymer Massey Lane, Luzerne, and can be contacted at (270) 820-6500.